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Discussion of Challenge Question #7 Dr. Bill Calvert, Texas Monarch Watch "So far this season much higher numbers of monarchs have been sighted in Florida than in Texas. Especially curious are the observations concerning migrations along the coast. It has always been assumed that monarchs migrate slowly up the coast of Texas and reach the most eastern Gulf Coastal States later. Allowances have always been made for the population of monarchs that overwinters in Florida, but that population has always been assumed to be too small to account for much more than an odd monarch seen here and there early in the season in Eastern Gulf Coastal States. "This year there have been few reports of monarchs flying up the Texas Coast. Many more are being reported from Florida and they are being seen at about the same time as those observed along the Texas coast. "We humans who demand constant spice and adventure in our lives will be tempted to conjure exciting theories to explain these observations, such as the monarchs some how avoid at least some of the land masses between there overwintering grounds deep in Mexico and Florida. Instead of following the coast line, they cross the Gulf of Mexico. As exciting as this sounds and as appealing as it is, there are more parsimonious hypotheses. "The land masses that monarchs traverse is huge and human observers are sparse. It is possible that the monarchs simply flew by without being observed. More data is needed to be gathered before we can conclude that monarchs are flying over the seemingly impossible grand distances of the Gulf of Mexico.